The End of the Photoblogring

Thu, June 30th, 2005 by Cameron

Dear all it may concern,
I am shutting down the photoblogring.

First I would like to say thank you to all who took an active part in the photoblogring and tried to help by giving feedback and notifying me of dead links etc.
It seemed like a good idea at the time but due to numerous factors the ring is no longer a viable proposition.
These factors include:
*Far too many sites non-compliance with proper ring code placement.
*Far too many sites going defunct or changing their layout and neglecting/forgetting(?) to put the webring code back into their pages.
*RingSurf's less than ideal (this is an understatement!) set-up, making it almost impossible to find and manage sites in such a large ring.
*My lack of enough time in the day to give the ring the attention it needs to keep functioning properly.

Of course if I knew then what I know now about webrings I may have done things differently (chances are however I probably wouldn't have attempted this task at all it is nearly impossible for one individual to manage using the tools I used- oh well, we live and learn, if we're lucky!)

I have tried to notify all active members via email but my mail server cannot handle the task, apologies to all for having to let you know in this way. I suugest all members remove the photoblogring code from their pages as soon as convenient for them, I feel that just letting the ring degrade by attrition would probably just be frustrating to all involved, but I'll leave it up to individual members. I will leave all active members listed for two months then I will clear the boards.

Perhaps Brandon will eventually be able to incorporate some form of random photoblog browsing into the photoblogs.org site.

Once again, I would like to express my thanks and deep appreciation to those of you who helped try and make the photoblogring work.

Cheers,

Cameron

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 30th, 2005 at 8:09 pm and is filed under Photoblogging Discussion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

Brandon Stone Says:
June 30th, 2005 at 8:46 pm

Hey Cameron,

I'd like to say thanks for everything you've done. You've worked tirelessly on this project for everyone's benefit. It is *much* appreciated.

If the photoblog ring isn't the best way to allow for random browsing, maybe we can talk about a better solution. If you like, I'll send you an email and we can bounce around some ideas.

Frank Says:
June 30th, 2005 at 9:39 pm

Cameron, thanks for your effort nonetheless. I always thought it was fun to see what I'd get (you know, my momma always said rings were like a box of chocolates...)

I bookmarked many sites I saw through the ring, and I wouldn't have seen them otherwise.

Thanks!

seems Artless Says:
July 1st, 2005 at 12:26 am

Sad to see it go, but I have to agree with your statement "I feel that just letting the ring degrade by attrition would probably just be frustrating to all involved".

Thanks for all your hard work.

Mike Says:
July 1st, 2005 at 2:39 am

I think I may have the dubious distinction of being the LAST site to join the ring. I am not an html expert and it took me a couple of days to get my ring code right and up on my site. I finally got it up there earlier today, clicked on "list" and got the shut down message!

Anyway, I have been following the ring for quite awhile and I'm sorry to see it go; it is too bad. You have done a terrific job and I appreciate the aggravation you must have gone through! Thanks.

Ioannis Says:
July 1st, 2005 at 4:55 am

I'd happily do some work to create something like the photoblogring. It was, by me, the best way to browse random blogs and the only way I used to find ones to see.

Would you like to contact me to discuss your lessons learnt to see if I can supersede your work?

Thankyou.

rob Says:
July 1st, 2005 at 10:46 am

thank you for everything cameron ,as the others i discovered some wonderful links !

rob from france

pilgrim Says:
July 1st, 2005 at 11:02 am

Thanks for your efforts Cameron. Pity that you can't carry on, but at least it was a worthwile labour of love while it lasted. I'm thankful for each visit I received from the Ring and for getting in touch with other fellows.
Best wishes!

potty Says:
July 1st, 2005 at 12:00 pm

thanks for all the effort and time you put into this, cameron. it definitely was a worthwhile endeavour and many people benefited from it.

djn1 Says:
July 1st, 2005 at 6:56 pm

Cameron: tanks for all the hard work. As others have mentioned, it was a worthwhile project.

Cameron Says:
July 2nd, 2005 at 2:08 am

Dear all, thank you so much for your words of appreciation.
@ Frank ~ you were always a great help to me with the ring and I will always be very apprecaitive of that, thank you Frank.
@ Mike - I really feel I must especially apologise to you Mike, and to all who so recently joined or applied to join the photoblogring and took the time and trouble to insert the code into their sites, only to find I pulled the plug.
@ Ioannis ~ thank you so much for your offer. I am actually in discussion with Brandon and another member regarding the management of a potential rebirth of the photoblogring, but I do really appreciate your expression of interest. There are a few logistical problems that need to be addressed, but the other member who has contacted me is (like Brandon) a bit of a wiz at php and database management, and that is what any new ring really needs more than anything. The main sticking point with the old ring was the way Ringsurf's infrastructure worked (or didn't as the case more often than not seemed to be) with a large ring.
Things are still up in the air but hopefully from my experience a more useable and manageable photoblog webring may emerge. We shall see!
Thanks again all, the photoblogging community really are a great bunch of people!
Stay tuned for further developments...
:-)>

maya Says:
July 2nd, 2005 at 12:53 pm

I wasn't even a member for a long time, but I wanted to express my appreciation and thanks to you. I am sure that it was a tremendous effort to keep this going. It is a privilege to have known about all these photobloggers, and I think that it was an amaizing idea that u had.

It is a pitty that is has to go away. Maybe something can still be done. So much work and such a great thing that u got going should not go away. And maybe instead of letting it go, we could all put some effort in it and keep it together.

Good luck.

Raffi Says:
July 2nd, 2005 at 4:33 pm

Ah well thanks for everything! It was pretty cool, though I was only a member for a short period of time. I found out about a lot of other photoblogs through the ring. Hopefully we can look forward to another kind of ring soon.

Brandon Stone Says:
July 2nd, 2005 at 5:56 pm

I took Cameron's suggestion to add random browsing to Photoblogs.org:

http://blog.photoblogs.org/2005/07/new_photoblog_r.html

Reza Says:
July 2nd, 2005 at 11:38 pm

Thanks for your efforts. I got so many hits referred from your site, maybe even more than photoblogs.org. I wish things would have worked better and you could have stayed.... Good luck anyway.

Amber Says:
July 4th, 2005 at 1:04 pm

Thanks, I joined on the tail end but did have many visitors becuase of the ring. I found photoblogs I never would have found otherwise.

I whole heartedly agree about Ringsurf. I run a ring called Blogs That Flickr. We are at 124 members and I find myself manually doing everything. It is quite alot of upkeep.

Ringsurf is outdated!

Cameron -- Are you going to keep the site & blog roll up? Or are you dismantling it all?

Thanks again for everything.